Mayor Eric Adams on Sunday defended choosing his brother to serve as a deputy NYPD commissioner, saying he needs someone he can trust to protect him — including from potential threats by white supremacists.
During an appearance on CNN, the new mayor revealed that his younger brother, former NYPD cop Bernard Adams, will be tasked with protecting his safety.
“Let me be clear on this: My brother is qualified for the position. Number one, he will be in charge of my security, which is extremely important to me at a time when we see an increase in white supremacy and hate crimes,” the Big Apple’s second black mayor said on “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper, when pressed about nepotism and ethics concerns over the appointment.
“I have to take my security in a very serious way.”
The Conflict of Interest Board, a city ethics panel, will ultimately have to “make the determination” on whether to grant permission to the mayor to hire his brother as a deputy commissioner, Adams revealed.
“That process is underway,” he told reporters afterward.
During an unrelated press conference Sunday, Adams added that “anarchists” also are among the groups his brother can best protect him from, calling their security arrangement “extremely unique.”
“Protection is personal. You have an increase of anarchists in this city, country. We have a serious problem with white supremacy. And when you talk about this type of security that I want, it’s extremely unique. I don’t want to be away from my public,” he said in Manhattan.
“I trust my brother. My brother understands me,” he continued. “And if I have to put my life in someone’s hands, I want to put it in the hands of a person that I trust deeply, because that is a very personal process of your security.”
A rep for Adams — asked whether the mayor has recently faced threats from white supremacists or anarchists — referred questions on the matter to the NYPD. In response, an NYPD spokesperson said that Adams was “given a two hour security briefing by the Intelligence Bureau covering foreign and domestic violent extremists groups and the current threat stream as it effects (sic) New York City.”
“It remains the general practice of the NYPD not to discuss the specifics regarding security or threats,” the spokesperson added.
A City Hall spokesman told The Post that Adams does not carry a gun as mayor, though he previously suggested he would opt for a firearm in lieu of a mayoral traditional security detail.
Adams’ brother, a 56-year-old retired NYPD sergeant, was recently listed as a deputy commissioner on the NYPD roster, according to internal documents obtained by The Post on Friday.
Bernard Adams — currently assistant director for parking at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he’s worked since 2011, according to his LinkedIn profile — confirmed to The Post that he is set to oversee governmental affairs, in a civilian position that typically comes with a salary of around $242,000.
On Sunday, Eric Adams claimed that his brother will help him to strike a “balance” between keeping the mayor safe and still staying “approachable” to New Yorkers. Adams said his sibling is the right fit for the role because of his NYPD experience — and because he “deeply” trusts him.
“I need that right balance, and I don’t want the people of this city to believe that the mayor is not approachable and he’s not willing to engage with them on the level that I want to represent,” Adams said. “You saw I took the subway system on my Day One in office, and those are the types of things that I’m going to do.
“My brother has a community-affairs background, that balance that I need, he understands law enforcement. He was 20-year retired veteran from the Police Department, and I need someone that I trust around me during these times with my security, and I trust my brother deeply.”
Also Sunday, Adams sought to justify choosing Phil Banks — an unindicted co-conspirator in a federal police corruption probe — as his deputy mayor for public safety.
Banks was never charged in the case but later named by the feds as an unindicted co-conspirator. Banks and Adams have repeatedly denied he committed any wrongdoing, pointing to the fact that the feds never brought criminal charges as proof of his innocence.
The mayor claimed that Banks — who had resigned from the top uniformed spot in the NYPD as federal investigators probed “hundreds of thousands” of dollars in Banks’ account — is a “talented” crime-fighter who ‘fessed up to his “real mistakes.
“I believe that Phil acknowledges there were some real mistakes and errors that were made, he was not accused of crime,” Adams said.
“I think that, when you look at what happened yesterday in this city, a young person was shot in a robbery in a store, it really personifies why need the best person for the job,” Adam said Sunday morning, referring to the death of a female teen cashier killed at an East Harlem Burger King.
“I can’t leave bad people doing bad things to good people … when I have a talented person that just made some … bad decisions,” Adams said. “[Banks] didn’t do anything that was criminal.
“Phil is a great person at the right time to do this job,” he added. “Leaving that talent on the bench is the wrong thing to do. He is the right person at the time to really bring together all of my law-enforcement agencies and entities, and he’s going to show New Yorkers every day [that] he’s the right person for this job, and I’m excited about having him on the team.”
Additional reporting by Reuven Fenton
